1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pair of electrical connectors to be engaged with each other with a slight effort.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there is an electrical connector assembly to electrically connect a transmission installed in a vehicle to interior wiring thereof such as a multiway connector assembly (e.g. 16 way). This multiway connector assembly accommodates and retains a plurality of terminals in rooms of a male connector housing thereof. Then, this male connector is engaged fully with a female mating connector accommodating a plurality of terminals, so that the terminals of the connectors are respectively engaged and electrically connected. With the multiway connector assembly where the housing accommodates numbers of terminals, engaging of the connectors needs a high insertion force. Accordingly, a heavy effort to engage connectors makes workers fatigued badly. Therefore, some circular engaging connectors equipped with rotating parts (bayonet connectors) are proposed to lighten the effort.
As a circular engaging connector assembly, there is an electric connector assembly such as described in JP-A4-132178 issue bulletin or described in JP-A10-154553. (The term xe2x80x9cJP-Axe2x80x9d as herein means xe2x80x9cunexamined published Japanese patent applicationxe2x80x9d)
As shown in FIG. 9, the former electric connector assembly has a male connector 40 and a female connector 41 accommodating contact terminals 42, 43 respectively. The male connector 40 is engaged with a locking hood 44 and holds the hood rotatably. By initially engaging the connectors 40, 41 with each other, a projection 45 formed on an inner wall of the locking hood 44 is brought into a position of an opening part of a spiral groove 46 formed upon an exterior surface of the female connector 41.
Under the initial engaging of the connectors 41, 40, the projection 45 makes contact with a wall forming the spiral groove 46 and presses the wall by rotating the locking hood 44. Accordingly, the female connector 41 is urged to shift to the direction of an engaging position, so that the projection 45 reaches a dead end of the spiral groove 46 and the connectors 41, 40 are fully engaged and electrically connected with each other.
Torque of the locking hood 44 is magnified into a large force in a direction of engaging by an inclined plane of the spiral groove 46, so that the effort to engage the connectors 40, 41 is reduced.
As shown in FIG. 10, the latter electrical connector assembly has a rotatable member 51 and a detection tool 52. After the initial engaging of male and female connectors, the member 51 rotatably mounted on the male connector 50 is so rotated as to engage with the female connector. Consequently, the male connector 50 is moved toward the engagement position. Thus, the male and female connectors are fully engaged and electrically connected with each other. The detection tool 52 is so mounted on the male connector as to ascertain whether the connectors are fully engaged with each other. That is, when engaging the connectors fully with each other by rotating the member 51, an engaging projection 54 of the detection tool 52 is engaged with an engaging recess 55 of the rotatable member 51 by inserting fully the detection tool 52 into an accommodating part 53. On the contrary, when engaging the connectors insufficiently with each other by insufficient rotation of the member 51, the engaging projection 54 of the detection tool 52 is not engaged with the engaging recess 55 of the rotatable member 51. Consequently, after rotating the rotatable member 51, a engaging condition of connectors is ascertained easily by whether the engaging projection 54 of the detection tool 52 is engaged with the engaging recess 55 of the rotatable or not.
In the above mentioned former connector assembly, the projection of the male connector reaches the dead end of the spiral groove of the female connector by rotating the rotatable member of the male connector, so that the connectors are fully engaged. A judgement of the full engaging is done by rotating the rotatable member to stop moving, because the rotatable member cannot rotate further when the projection reaches the dead end of the spiral groove. Thus, the judgement of the full engaging depends on operator""s sense of detecting a change of torque mostly. It is difficult to ascertain the full engaging by visual observation. As a result, for example, when some trouble happens, it may mislead the sense of detecting the change of torque into believing that the rotatable member is sufficiently rotated despite the insufficient rotation. Thus, there is a possibility of occurrence that the engaging of the connectors is insufficient in the former connector assembly.
In this regard, it is easy to ascertain the condition of engaging in the latter connector assembly by mounting the detection tool on the male connector. The detection tool is housed in the accommodating part. The condition of engaging is ascertained by whether the engaging projection of the detector tool is engaged with the recess of the rotatable member. However, the latter connector assembly requires the detection tool in addition to the male connector, the female connector and the rotatable member. The number of the component parts is increased in the latter connector assembly.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above described problems and an object of the present invention is to provide an electric connector assembly for ascertaining the full engaging condition of the connectors easily without an increase of component parts thereof.
In the connector assembly of the invention, a pair of connectors is engaged fully with each other by being engaged initially with each other, secondly being rotated the member mounted rotatably on either of the connectors, and thirdly being moved at least either of the connectors toward the engaging point.
In order to achieve the invention, according to a first aspect of the invention, in the above connector assembly, a first mark is provided on either the rotatable member or one of the connectors on which the member is mounted. A second mark is so provided on either said one of the connectors on which the member is mounted or the rotatable member as to be ascertained whether the pair of the connectors is fully engaged with each other.
In such a configuration, it is possible to ascertain whether the pair of the connectors is fully engaged with each other by the first mark either the rotatable member or one of the connectors and the second mark provided on either said one of the connectors or the rotatable member. Thus, it is possible to ascertain whether the pair of the connectors is fully engaged with each other without the increase of the component parts in the connector assembly.
According to a second aspect of the invention, it is preferable that either the first or second mark is a projection provided on an engaging arm which is mounted resiliently on either the rotatable member or one of the connectors, and either of the marks is the engaging recess where the projection is engaged.
Thus, the full engaging condition of the connectors is ascertained on sight. Because if the pair of connectors is fully engaged, the projection is engaged with the engaging recess, and if not, the projection is not engaged with the engaging recess. Further, when the pair of connectors is fully engaged, the projection is engaged with the engaging recess, so that the rotatable member holds the full engaging condition.
According to a third aspect of the invention, it is preferable that an initial engagement recess is provided on either one of the connectors on which the member is mounted or the rotatable member. The initial engagement recess is so engaged with the projection as to hold the rotatable member in an initial engaging position.
Thus, it is not difficult to engage a pair of connectors without rotating the rotatable member, because the member is held in the initial engaging position by engaging the projection with the initial engagement recess. That is, the initial engaging is done without interference of the rotating parts.
According to a forth aspect of the invention, it is preferable that the projection and/or the engaging arm and the engaging recess are made of synthetic resin. Using the synthetic resin, when the projection enters the engaging recess caused by restitutive force, a locking sound is made from a contact between the projection and the engaging recess and/or a contact between the engaging arm and a wall of the engaging recess. The engaging arm bent by rotation of the rotatable member produces the above-described restitutive force.
In such a configuration, the locking sound is made when the pair of connectors is fully engaged by rotating the rotatable member, so that it is possible to ascertain whether the pair of connectors is fully engaged by hearing the sound.